Batman: The Dark Prince Charming #2

[cyberghostface]

"Batman is very predictable. The Joker is the other side of the coin. In my version, he changes his personality every five minutes. At times, he appears friendly, charming and funny. He's a clown, anyway. The next moment, he shows himself as melancholy, endearing, tender sometimes with a girl who remains his hostage. But he remains a monster, an unpredictable killer. Like all psychopath characters, he is fascinating. A bit like Hannibal Lecter in 'The Silence of the Lambs'." -- Enrico Marini (translated from French)

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

. . .

But you know?
As an Elseworlds-type tale, this isn't as bad as I'd feared. In a weird sort of way.
I kind of like the dynamic here, if not the overly sexualized bits with Harley.

[tcampbell1000]

"If you pull that trigger, it's over between us" has got to be the most classic-Harley line ever.

The Joker's suicidal sidekick really has not thought things through if he can't figure out a way to get killed WHILE WORKING FOR THE JOKER.

[fungo_squiggly]

I imagine that a suicidal henchman working for the Joker would naturally have a pretty long lifespan, if only because not-killing them would be funnier than killing them.

[deh_tommy]

Almost everyone but him dies while working for the Joker, so that’s not like he hasn’t tried.

[oakie620]

Maybe that's exactly why the Joker keeps him around. Seems like the sort of twisted irony that would be funny to him.

[miramira]

For a story that supposedly celebrates the Joker's unpredictability, this is an awfully predictable outcome.

[cyberghostface]

Joker potentially being the father?

[miramira]

I read it as more definitive than potential, but yes.

[owlbrigade1]

Not a fan of it dipping into the villainous crossdresser trope, that is one of those tropes that ends up causing realworld damage and reinforces poisonous social prejudices. However, the Joker doing singing in the rain, that was funny. Even the cop's death (really Gotham should just start issuing its cops red uniforms by now) didn't seem gratuitous at all. And Depp!Joker in that finally panel is pretty good character design.

[crimsonmoonmist]

To be fair, I get the point of it, which is to visually show that Joker drastically changes his personality and perception of self on a whim. But yeah, it has unfortunate implications.

[captainbellman]

It's not original to this story, even; the original script to Morrison & McKean's "Arkham Asylum" had him in a leathery Madonna-like ensemble with gratuitous empty cups.

All a tad transphobic.

[cyberghostface]

The Madonna but sure but I don’t see how Joker here is being transphobic. He’s even commenting on another woman to Bruce like a straight guy would so it’s even like they’re playing off harmful stereotypes.

[deh_tommy]

I imagine Joker only crossdresses as part of whatever gag he’s cooked up this time rather than being non-binary or transgender.

[owlbrigade1]

The crossdressing villain is still a harmful social stereotype as it normalises the idea of gender non conforming people and trans people being deceitful or psychologically damaged.

[deh_tommy]

But Joker isn’t trans, non-cis or non-gender conforming, he’s just doing this because he thinks this would be funny for him to do.

[owlbrigade1]

Yeah. That is my point. That is why it is toxic.

[leoboiko]

The treatment of gender in this story, in general, is its weakest point.

[gnarll]

Harley has a PhD in psychiatry. I'd think she knows the difference between Stockholm and Lima.

[janegray]

I'm glad the child didn't die. I was expecting her to, happy to be wrong!

[bradygirl_12]

I love the way the girl made the joke on the Joker with the poison/antidote sequence.

[ekrolo2]

I like how the ending to this works regardless of who's the dad.

Either Bruce's daughter is already shaping up to be a chip off the old shoulder and has her own twisted relationship with the Joker or Joker's kid is gonna end up being Bruce's successor as Gotham's protector.

[neverwherehere]

I agree, I really liked how the ending stated that it didn't matter who her biological father was.

The important part was that she made her choice, and she made it fairly quickly. She flat out wasn't buying what the Joker was selling and pretty much defeated the Joker on her own.

Behold, the best (or at least good-ish) Duela Dent story never told!

[deh_tommy]

I don’t know why, but I always seem to like when two villains find love with one another. They’re not really good people, but they get to be not-really-good people together.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Alina again someday.